A personal "behind the scenes" insight from the perspectives of CEO-wife and COO-husband power team into what its like to be a family owned and operated small business called EBSCO Spring Company. www.ebscospring.com

Blinders Should Only be for Horses

I tend to get very focused on topics. When it comes to work I plow ahead like a laser when seeking new objectives. You might say that is a good trait and in some ways it is BUT I recently learned you need to take pauses to look around.

We recently lost someone who was a direct report to myself and I assumed their responsibilities. What I discovered was not what I expected. I was involved in their work. We met daily and we both knew the priorities and the direction we wanted to go. We were on the same page when it came to the big picture in their work. What I didn’t do was take time to inspect the details. Out of site, out of mind. Things seemed to be progressing well and I had my priorities to attend to. Don’t bother me with the details. Big Mistake!

Now, left to me I am discovering that the small details were not under control. The entire system was slowly eroding from within, becoming a task of maintaining a façade of normal. As I dive in I discover one thing leads to another that leads to another and nothing is as it seemed. My other revelation is this area has soooo much opportunity to help Ebsco. As myself and coworkers begin to rebuild the system we are finding opportunities for improvement around every corner. This has become my laser focus. The big projects I was working on have so little opportunities compared to fixing what already was. As I was moving forward a step at a time, everything else was falling back two steps. We are fortunate to have stumble onto this before it was too late and we had to completely start over.

The lesson learned is while remaining focused is fine, you have to take breathers and REALLY check into what is already in place. Make sure it is healthy and running as you expected. The only thing inevitable is change and all of the things you put in place yesterday have change today. Inspect what you expect. Make adjustments and then move forward. Who said you can’t teach and old dog new tricks?